September 17, 2013

All-In-One liquid cooling solution ( also known as closed loop water cooling, self-contained liquid cooling ) is not something new but it has been in the market for years. Many well known brands we know, well to name a few : Asetek, CoolIT, Corsair, Silverstone, Zalman, Antec, NZXT, Cooler Master, Enermax, Thermaltake, etc has such variety of products available to the consumers.

Unlike the traditional liquid cooling setup with separated components - water blocks, pumps, reservoir, tubings, fittings, radiators, etc, the closed loop liquid cooling has each of every components combined into one simple, easy to install, maintenance free, All-In-One liquid cooler. Almost each and every closed loop coolers you could ever find on the market are made this way: an integrated water pump on top of a copper cold plate, connected to a 120mm/140mm/240mm/280mm radiator with a pair of tubes with both end sealed on the pump and radiator to prevent possible leakage.

Enough with the long talk which will take probably ages to finish without any pics to support my explanation and let us move directly to the main actor of this unboxing session: the Corsair H70 Core.

For your information, this is a 6 month old used H70 Core which I have bought from a garage sales after scrutinized thoroughly to ensure everything is good , no break, no leakage.

Basically everything that comes with the cooler initially stays intact, except for the pre-applied thermal paste on the copper base of the cold plate of the cooler. There's the accessories, mounting brackets for Intel CPU ( bottom left and top right ), mounting brackets for AMD CPU ( top left and bottom right ), screws for mounting two 120mm fans on the radiator AND NO FANS WERE INCLUDED. Not what I was expected from Corsair, they could have included at least a fan. Additional detail: the mounting bracket resembles the Asetek mounting bracket.

Let us take a quick glance on the Corsair H70, a 38mm thick radiator (resembles the radiator on the Corsair H80/H80i) connect to the pump (resembles the pump on the Asetek 545LC) with a pair of tubing which resembles those used on most of CoolIT closed loop liquid cooler. The tubing is somewhat a bit stiff / non-flexible, it'll be slightly tricky for first time user, especially to those who never installed a cooler with retention bracket.

A quick view at the copper base of the coldplate, minor wear and tear which is much expected from a used item but still looks good. All you need is some cleaning and optional polishing to make it look new again, but I'll leave all the hard work aside for now. Originally comes with a thick layer of pre-applied thermal compound which I personally recommend to remove and replace with a thin layer of the thermal compound of your choice for better temps during operation.

At each end of the tubing, is factory sealed to ensure there's no leakage during operation so you can just leave all your worries behind ( although I'll advise you to test the pump with a 4 pin molex to 3 pin or 4 pin fan connector to observe for leakage before installing as a safety measure, just in case of course ). Here's a brief and simple explanation to those who weren't able to get the idea of how things works in a liquid cooling system:

- The heat from the CPU is transferred to the coldplate where the coolant will then absorbs the heat as it flows through the coldplate.

- The coolant is then circulated to the radiator, thanks to the mighty pump.

- Heat is transferred to the aluminum fins of the radiator as the coolant runs through the radiator.

- The heat will be dissipated with the help of one or more 120mm fans installed on the radiator.

There's two cables which runs out from the pump:

- 3 pin fan connector (12v) to power up the pump.

- Another cable with a pair of 4 pin PWM fan connector for the fans which will be installed to the radiator.

The bottom retention bracket for Intel shows the supported type of socket:

- 1366 ( compatible with 2011): high end i7 processors like the i7 3970x

As for the AMD retention bracket, I can't find any relevant information of which type of socket is supported, but the details given on the box stated that it is compatible with AM2, AM3 and FM1 socket.

The two pieces of snap on like plastic pieces above is the stabilizer/ screw holder for the retention bracket.

The screw which will be installed later on, held by the two plastic snap on pieces in the pic earlier.

So this is how you actually install it, it took me a while to realize i have installed it wrongly. The plastic pieces claw like part should be installed facing the center of the bracket.

Just snap it on and insert the screw in the previous pic and you're done.

With the current details I have collected, here's my opinion on the cooler after this unboxing:

Pros - ready to use out of the box, maintenance free because it's a closed loop liquid cooler, thick radiator which provides great cooling performance, small compact design which save s lot of space compared to traditional water cooling setup

Cons - short tubing and non-flexible tubing makes installation tricky to newbies, no fans included which I think is quite a letdown, the retention bracket is tricky to install if you do not have any experience in installing CPU coolers with retention bracket provided

Performance review will be conducted in a different session, which is after my test rig is ready as i am still waiting for my ATX case to return from RMA due to factory defect. Stay tuned and see you next time for more unboxing and reviews.